Country musician and entrepreneur finds his cash flow and business relationships got a boost from accounting software.

Al Brisco, with a resonator guitar in his workshop, is the owner of Steel Guitars of Canada in Colborne. Brisco recently integrated his company's credit card billing with the Quickbooks system to streamline his accounting into one seamless process.

By:Suzanne WintrobSpecial to the Star, Published on Thu May 05 2011

As a lad growing up on a farm near Renfrew in the 1950s, Al Brisco spent five years mastering the piano at his mother’s whim.

In high school, he taught himself the acoustic guitar and bass, earning extra cash by playing with local country bands, including one called The Countrymen. When a band member mentioned how nice it would be to have a steel guitar at gigs, the enterprising teenager found a photo on a Pete Drake album and built one himself and named it Sho-Pal.

In 1964, Brisco sold the Sho-Pal to a fellow musician and bought a Fender factory-built pedal steel guitar. He was soon on the road as a full-time musician.

Fifty years on, Brisco still lives on a farm — this one in Colborne, Ont. — and still plays with local bands. He’s a fixture at steel guitar conventions and was inducted into the Ottawa Valley Country Music Hall of Fame.

In 2002, Brisco opened Steel Guitars of Canada. The 2,000-square-foot shop, located on his four-acre property, sells and services steel guitars and related accessories, and garners orders from enthusiasts around the world. He’s ably assisted by one part-time student and a part-time bookkeeper.

Brisco, 66, started his business with a $20,000 line of credit. He secured another $100,000 two years later and built an Internet presence after a U.S. steel guitar manufacturer showed him how. To boost his cash-flow and get his books in order, he sought advice from other small businesses and tapped into accounting software.

He uses Intuit’s multi-currency QuickBooks Pro 2010 to organize his finances, track sales and expenses, and get a real-time picture of his business. Last year, he added Merchant Services for QuickBooks, letting him process payments quickly.

“It does the processing, we get an authorization, and Bob’s your uncle,” Brisco says.

He now gets paid within 24 hours, rather than waiting for days as he did in his early years.

Canada Post’s 24/7 online business centre helps him prepare small packages for shipments, chart their journey and pay online — yet more ways in which he reduces paperwork, saves time and improves his billing and transaction accuracy.

“As sales go up, you’ve gotta be able to process them in time,” he says. “Sometimes we’re scrambling here to get them out. Having QuickBooks and the post-office program has really helped expedite our increased business.”

Managing cash-flow can make a huge difference to a small business. Unfortunately, many owners are so busy trying to chase customers they don’t have time to track money coming in.

Chris Davey, Intuit’s group product marketing manager, says one of the biggest challenges facing small businesses is receiving payment quickly. Many invoice clients for products or services with a 60- or 90-day payment term “but that basically chokes off your cash-flow” and limits the ability to pay employees and grow the business, he says.

A small construction firm with $40,000 in outstanding invoices has likely incurred debt to make those deals happen, so waiting for payment can be stressful.

“A lot of people struggle through it,” says Davey. “You have a skill or a trade that you do, and that’s your expertise. As you move into business, you start adapting to how the business process works and how people pay and what the terms of engagement are.”

Shane Lawrence, associate vice-president of TD Business Banking, wishes entrepreneurs would remember business is finished only once the money is in the bank. “Many businesses starve on lack of cash-flow. They can’t meet their obligations, so they go under, even though their model is profitable.

“Unless you have a good overdraft or a good line of credit, you’re laying out a lot of money before you see your first cheque. That’s what causes businesses hardship.”

Brisco’s working harder than ever at managing his cash-flow since he acquired 60 steel guitars on consignment last year. Not only has the steadier cash-flow boosted his bottom line, but it netted him many new international customers.

“It’s much easier to keep a customer than find a new one.”

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